With so much 4K content and so many compatible TVs now knocking about, Apple left many scratching their heads when it unveiled a new, overhauled version of its streaming box last month that surprisingly lacked the ability to display Ultra HD.

And with perfect timing, Amazon gleefully took the wraps off this new rejigged version of its Fire TV box, boasting support for 4K streams from Netflix and its own Prime Video service.

As well as its UHD streaming ability, there’s a new faster 64-bit CPU and graphics processor that speeds up the already nippy interface, and the addition of Amazon’s excellent super- smart Alexa voice assistant which is handily accessed via a microphone in the Wi-Fi enabled remote.

There’s a somewhat meagre 8GB of onboard storage for apps and media, but this can be boosted by a further 128GB via an microSD card slot at the rear.

Watching the opening space sequence of Elysium in all its high-res glory via the Amazon store serves as an impressive showcase for how smoothly the box deals with the extra detail, making it difficult to go back to regular HD streams afterwards.

As before, the box runs on Amazon’s re-skinned version Android OS, which is slick and simple to navigate, but lacks the range of apps available on Google’s Play Store.

A lot of recent Smart TV’s already have access to 4K-ready Netflix and Amazon apps, and perhaps won’t see much benefit here.

However, for early adopters of Ultra HD sets and owners of budget 4K TVs that don’t have the required HEVC encoder built-in, this is something of a godsend, allowing them access to the sort of content they originally bought their set for.